The Influence of Dust on Physiological Responses of Sweet Potato (Ipomoea batatas) Leaves

Abstract

An increase in quarrying, mining and road traffic activities have resulted in dust deposition onto plant vegetation. This study was conducted to evaluate the physiological responses of sweet potato leaves to dust pollution. Four kinds of soil dust (namely, clay, silt, sand and carbon-black), which were different in particle size but all with pH values around 7.0，were applied to upper surface of sweet potato leaves at various density. The results revealed that the small dust particles caused stomata closure, water loss and net photosynthetic rate decline. Even though, carbon-black and clay particles were similar diameter, physiological responses to these two types of particles were significantly different, which suggesting that other parameters other than particle size are critical for the observed difference in physiological responses. It appeared that the additional absorption of incident radiation by the carbon-black had consequently changed the photosynthetic rate. 本試驗主要探討甘藷葉片受粉塵污染後之生理反應。利用4種酸鹼値皆接近中性，但粒徑大小不同之土壤（黏土、玢土、砂土及碳粉）爲處理材料，將不同濃度粉塵塗抹於甘藷葉片的上表皮，觀測對葉片的傷害情形。結果顯示，粒徑小之粉塵顆粒可引起 氣孔的關閉、脫水及二氧化碳交換速率下降。雖然碳粉和黏土兩者粒徑相近，但生理反應則顯著不同。顯示除了粉塵顆粒大小之外，其他因素對生理反應亦有重要影響。